Go to enough modern restaurants and you can play a form of food trend bingo. Cauliflower and kale, short ribs and pork belly, a gourmet take on mac and cheese – they trace connected lines across plenty of menu. And why not? They’re all delicious when handled right and they’re all pretty accessible crowd pleasers too. It’s simple math.
But then, look at a cross section of particular New Orleans menus, and you might spot a trend that doesn’t seem to add up.
Sweetbreads -- an enigma of a dish, coated in butter, wrapped in a confusing name and gobbled up with unusual gusto in our city, for reasons that are both cultural and culinary.
It takes a lot to get sweetbreads into presentable shape, and if you see them in the raw, all pale and lumpy and squishy, it can take some imagination to think of them as even palatable. Nevertheless, sweetbreads are turning up with increasing frequency in New Orleans.
But what are they? Let’s start with the name. It’s so deceptive, it seems intentional, almost Orwellian. They’re not sweet, and they’re definitely not bread. In fact, the definition is a little nebulous. But, generally, sweetbreads are the thymus gland, or sometimes pancreas gland, taken from veal calves.
The name might be a combination of words from old English – sweet, meaning in this case “lighter tasting” than other meats; and bread from an archaic term for food morsels. That’s one story anyway. For the uninitiated though, eating sweetbreads once is enough to sear the flavor profile into the taste buds.
We are talking about offal, but the most regal offering in that realm of organs and innards, with a mild flavor and a fine, creamy-smooth texture. Those who love them, really love them, and in New Orleans they’ve long enjoyed a built-in fanbase. Old Creole cookbooks list rosters of recipes for sweetbreads, and today the dish is a mainstay at some old line Creole restaurants, notably Arnaud’s and Galatoire’s. Other bastions are Clancy’s, Bayona and Brigtsen’s, and the many chefs who’ve come through these kitchens to open their own restaurants have learned the sweetbreads tricks from the best.
Elsewhere though, sweetbreads are inspiring more contemporary acts of offal artistry. At Doris Metropolitan they arrive in highly composed fashion with spiced orbs of yogurt. Sweetbreads tumble from a pita sandwich at Shaya, they’re nestled in linguini at Carrollton Market, paired with smoked farro at Patois and made into an eye-popping poutine at Toups’ Meatery, with melted cheese curds and all. They’re mixed with crabmeat at Gautreau’s Uptown and at the Franklin in the Marigny, they’re charred on the grill at La Boca and painted with Buffalo sauce at Sylvain. At Brennan’s they even taste Southern, served over truffle grits with sherry bacon jus dribbling over the edge.
This is not just a local trend. Sweetbreads are more popular all over, as diners dig into off cuts and exotic butcher shop finds. But New Orleans, with a well primed cultural affinity for sweetbreads and a crop of chefs putting their own signature on the stuff, is starting to feel like the land of the gland.
Restaurant writer Ian McNulty’s top picks for sweetbreads in New Orleans
Bayona
430 Dauphine St., 504-525-4455
417 Royal St., 504-525-9711
723 Dante St., 504-861-7610
8132 Hampson St., 504-252-9928
6100 Annunciation St., 504-895-1111
620 Chartres St., 504-267-3500
209 Bourbon St., 504-535-2021
1728 Soniat St., 504-899-7397
870 Tchoupitoulas St., 504-525-8205
6078 Laurel St., 504-895-9441
